A MUSLIM Life of Brian

Submitted by Ron Thompson (United States), Sep 14, 2012 at 19:50

Thank you for your response. Here's a few related thoughts regarding the amateurish, but actually quite interesting video that is causing so many Muslims to act remarkably true to the harshest stereotype of them. As a friend of mine once said to a protester on another issue, "if you don't want to be treated as a stereotype, stop acting like one".

Surely a few Christians were less than pleased with the spoof of their religion in the film from the Monty Python comedy team that came out in 1979. A few even uttered the word "blasphemy". But did any go rampaging through the streets of Christendom, or even commit a single act of violence?

Now look at the contrast with the reaction to the short 14 min video, Innocence Of Muslims, which is sparking riots and outrage around the Muslim world because of its mockery of Mohammed and his religion.

Actually that last phrase doesn't quite fit because this little PG-rated video – it has only references to violence, no obscenity or explicit sex scenes, and several dashes of effective humor, especially near the end when Mohammed is chased about by three irate women - is much more a mockery and satire of his political and personal goals than of his religion.

It humorously makes a very effective case that Mohammed's Islam is essentially and perhaps exclusively about extortion of material goods from others, intimidation (graduating quickly to terrorism if that doesn't work), and unlimited sexual license for his male followers, most especially for him personally.

It puts him much more in the category of Jim Jones, L. Ron Hubbard, Sun Yung Moon, and the Indian Fakirs/fakers who lived off manipulable hippies a few decades ago, than in the tradition of those genuine prophets recognized as true seekers of wise ways to live better lives and achieve real spiritual fulfillment - the Old Testament Prophets, Jesus, Buddha, and Confucius.

The sad difference is that his diabolically clever and cunning con, linking the powerful idea of monotheism with predation of property, and women and girls, captured the minds of hundreds and then thousands of males in a nomad society, and eventually millions and then tens and hundreds of millions.

It became forgotten how it all started.

But it's hard to think of a better way to show THE EMPEROR HAS NO CLOTHES than to circulate this marvelously subversive little video, relatively crude though it may be.

As speculation mounts that it may have been put together by a Copt from Egypt, the 'plot thickens'. On the one hand, if the speculation is true, it was an evil act to further endanger Israelis, and Jews everywhere.

But if the goal was to maximize Muslim outrage, then pointing to Jewish authorship makes a kind of hard, Machiavellian sense.

As to capturing the essence of Islam, who better than a member of an 8 million-weak minority which is in an even more – indeed much more - vulnerable position than 7 million Israelis with their superb army and other means of self-defense.

Interestingly, both these groups long pre-date historically the arrival of predatory Islam in their homelands.

One begins to wonder if this short movie deserves to become a kind of filmic Animal Farm about this new universal totalitarian enemy, which still gets all too much cover as a religion.

Perhaps the best result of this would be something like a network of people in many cities and countries who collect piles of Korans and peacefully burn them publicly, to tell all violent Muslims everywhere, we have reached the limit of our patience with you.

Although it is obvious casualties might result, would such a gesture, and the further mockery that this film should inspire, be a far better weapon than the troops and bombs and carnage which are otherwise surely down the road if we don't say … enough, with all the violence and riots over our exercise of free expression and the right to criticize religion, ANY religion?

We are dissatisfied with our President, indeed with our last two Presidents, along with many other leaders and shapers of opinion from all points on the political spectrum, who keep saying Islam "is a religion of peace" and counseling ever more embarrassing acts and words of appeasement. But now we seem to be waking up and opening our eyes.

For many reasons, and to the collective discredit of our leaders, 9/11 itself proved not to be enough of a wake-up call. It would certainly be ironic if this little film accomplished what that spectacular Islamic crime did not.

Although much time has already been lost, we may now be ready to decisively reject the Dhimmitude status we did not realize we had begun to adopt.

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